Monthly Archive

A beautiful and rather intriguing new 7″ out on Expanding Records by Belgian duo pq (Samir Bekaert and Maarten Vanderwalle). The title track features some nice guitar playing and singing by 14 year old Louise Raes (hence the name of the song). The B side is Countdown To Elise, a melancholy solo piano piece with some underlying field recording that sounds like a train station somewhere in Europe. I look forward to hearing their album due out later in the year.

Walking to the post office yesterday morning, drenched in sunlight and with a brisk cool wind at my heels I came across a fruit tree already in full bloom. A reminder that Spring is just around the corner. An aptly timed coincidence then that one of the CD’s I bought last weekend was the wonderful Sleeping Beauty by Sun Ra which features the bittersweet Springtime Again. This album, originally released in 1979, was recently reissued by UK label Art Yard. Not as overtly “out there” as some of his recordings it features a nice mix of melodic jazz, improvisation and group-singing. Sun Ra was born Herman Poole Blount in 1914. He changed his name to Sun Ra, named after the Egyptian God Ra, God of the Sun. A true individual, he believed he was from the planet Saturn and had a complex cosmological philosophy which he preached via his music, focussing on self-awareness and peace. At one time his band The Sun Ra Arkestra all lived together in the same house and he would hold gruelling practice sessions most days of the week. His band were expected to be, like him, completely dedicated to the music. Up until his death in 1993 he released a huge number of records, many of which, such as Sleeping Beauty, were originally only pressed in small quantities and sold at gigs. I’m glad labels such as Art Yard have unearthed some of these lost gems…